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I’m feeling discouraged. The district seems to be once again careening from crisis to crisis, from an unresolved teachers’ contract, to an unfinished, perhaps unfinishable K8 transition, to charter schools preying on the empty buildings left in the wake of destructive enrollment policies. We’re embarking on an ambitious high school system redesign that appears headed in the right direction with regard to balancing enrollment geographically and providing equity of opportunity, but trust in the community is low.

When everything seems to be blowing up, it’s useful to make a list. So I came up with the PPS Equity Manifesto. There’s nothing on this list that we can’t do; there’s nothing there that costs money. In fact, it will save money. In a way, this is a distillation of all the discussions we’ve had on this and other blogs over the last couple years. Comments are open on the manifesto page. I’d love your feedback.

Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.

In another sign of the failure of Portland Public Schools to fund and support a performing arts magnet school in a historically black neighborhood, a proposed charter school focused on many of Jefferson’s current and past strengths — namely video production and music — has its eyes on the now vacant music wing at Jefferson High as a possible location.

Jennifer Anderson reports in the Tribune today that Erica Jayasuriya, the organizer of the school modeled after a Minnesota charter school, also has her eye on Madison and Roosevelt areas.

Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.

The Portland Association of Teachers is sponsoring a rally and march for teachers Monday, November 9 at 6 p.m., starting at the Rose Quarter Benton Surface Lot (between the Coliseum and North Broadway). After the rally, participants will march to school district headquarters, where PAT president Rebecca Levison will address the school board. Teachers at Portland Public Schools have gone nearly 500 days without a contract, and union negotiators report continuing district intransigence in bargaining talks.

Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.